DAM
In Farsi, DAM means time, warmth, to inhale, to be on the edge. In English, it means barrier, obstruction, and blockage. Combined together, DAM constructs multi-layered linguistic meanings into an intimate, intense, and interactive solo performance. Complicated, heavy, textured, a complex negotiation of balance: this performance stimulates a visceral experience from an autobiographical narrative that struggles to transcend boundaries of identity.
Created and Performed by Bita Bell
Composer and Sound Artist: Rojin Sharafi
Performances
Lalish TheaterLabor, Vienna, Austria
October 2019
START|AS International Contemporary Art Festival Residency, Rokiškis, Lithuania
Production Assistants: Ieva Lapelyte, Golnaz Khadempour
Light Designer: Ignotas Svickas
Sound Board: Arunas Paškevicius
Video: Ilia Shatokhin Editing: Bita Bell
Thanks to : Paulius Prievelis, Shirin Farshbaf, Rokiškis Kulturos Centras, Leokordis, and Senas Grafas
START|AS International Contemporary Art Festival, Rokiškis, Lithuania
September 2019
Dam Noosh
Dam means to inhale and to be on the edge. Noosh means to taste and is a feminine noun. Combined together, Dam Noosh is a way of brewing Iranian herbal tea, constructing multi-layered linguistic meanings into one communal activity of drinking tea. In this intimate and interactive multimedia solo performance senses of smell, touch, taste, visual and audio are stimulated for a visceral experience of an autobiographical narrative that struggles to transcend boundaries of identity.
Dancer and Choreographer Bita Bell
Music Composers Bita Bell in collaboration with Aubrey Liston (Cellist and Singer) and Sarah Jaegers (Clarinetist)
Installation Designer Bita Bell
Performances
2019 Urban Arts Space Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
2019 Commissioned by Borders in Motion Conference, The Ohio State University
Project made possible by the Alumni Grants for Graduate Research and Scholarship Award
Press
Reviews
“You found a way to navigate, I believed, an intimate and a genuine act of giving and sharing in the moment – it wasn’t I’m going to perform – it was simple gestures with complexity behind it…” – Dr. Nadine George-Graves
“the rug and the tea! the impossibility to move the ‘cultural object’ but of course it moves and the artist moves about it and through it. and the sharing of the tea with someone who has come to witness, changing the temperature of the encounter … so many things .. congratulations …” – Dr. Thomas F. DeFrantz
“I see your rigour and your consideration in making a space for audience and yourself to dive into complex questions.” – Liam Clancy
“Inviting soft and gently, creating an immediate connection with the audience and taking them in – inviting to join a process, a transformation, an exploration … The audience is a guest in your home, it seems like an invitation into an abstraction of a domestic place, who’s boundaries are being blurred more and more throughout the work.” – Olivia Hild
Dam Noosh
2019 Iranian Female Composers Association, IFCA
Kindred Spaces
2019 The Ohio State University, Department of Dance
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